Research Shows Edmonton Single-Family Home Prices Up 0.6 per cent

The Financial Post published an article last 13 May entitled "Canadian home prices rose slightly in April — but Toronto and Vancouver were basically flat: Teranet"

This story was met with really interesting response from readers with some commenting that "This bubble cannot inflate indefinitely as much as many Canadians think it will - forever". Let us know that you think in the comment section below.

TORONTO — Canadian home prices rose in April from a month earlier, the fourth straight monthly increase, but the pace of the gains was slower than in March and the hot markets of Toronto and Vancouver were flat, the Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index showed on Wednesday.

The index, which measures price changes for repeat sales of single-family homes, showed national home prices rose 0.2 per cent last month from March. Prices were up 4.4 per cent from a year earlier and hit a new high nationally. The index does not provide actual prices.

While prices stayed at record highs in Toronto and Vancouver and in the nation as a whole, corrections were underway in some other major cities, so the flat readings in Toronto and Vancouver could herald the start of a broader market cooling.

“Excluding the recession year 2009, the monthly change is tied with that of April 2013 for the smallest April advance in 17 years of index data,” the Teranet report said.

Canada escaped the U.S. housing market crash of six years ago, but analysts have long fretted about the length of its housing boom. They are divided over whether an eventual slowdown will be a U.S.-style collapse or a soft landing.

While prices in the two hottest markets, Toronto and Vancouver, were little changed, there were gains in several other cities, the report showed. That bucks the trend of Toronto and Vancouver, which account for 54 per cent of the composite index, holding up the national market.

The Teranet-National Bank price index showed prices were up 1.9 per cent in Winnipeg, 1.7 per cent in Quebec City, 1.0 per cent in Montreal, 0.7 per cent in Halifax, 0.6 per cent in Edmonton and 0.2 per cent in Calgary, where the market has been sideswiped by a drop in oil prices.

Prices were down 0.7 per cent in Ottawa, 0.2 per cent in Victoria and 0.1 per cent in Hamilton, the index showed.